Saltboxes, colonials, and farmhouses…these old-fashioned homes have captured the hearts of contemporary Americans looking to build homes that evoke feelings of nostalgia and family. The once-popular McMansion, says Iconoculture, has been on its way out, as people seek to abandon the cold carbon copy anonymity of oversized, inefficient dwellings. “Consumers are increasingly backlashing against the homogeneous style of McMansions. Homeowners may still want big homes, but they want heritage, character and charm, too,” the report says.

 

What are the reasons for this shift in housing trends? “Part of this has to do with the skyrocketing cost of land and new construction earlier this decade, which drove developers to smaller lots and buyers to prioritize what they really wanted from their home,” says James Chung, president of NY-based marketing and strategy research firm Reach Advisors. 

 

“There’s actually a big demographic driver embedded in the shift away from McMansions. The average age of buyers of trade-up homes is 42 years old. The growth in the size of new homes coincided with when the peak years of the Baby Boomers moved through their peak years of trade-up home buying,” Chung explains. “Now that the demographic pig-in-the-python is entering their empty nester years, guess what? The average size of new homes is coming down.”

 

And the new home buyers have different values than their predecessors, Chung says. “Generation Xers filling in behind them have less interest in McMansions as a status symbol. They have less interest in expecting that every family member will have their own space to escape the rest of the family,” he tells demo dirt. “Almost all Generation X homeowners bought into the market after the unprecedented run-up in home prices kicked into gear in 1996, leading to 55 percent more housing debt than the prior generation of homebuyers, forcing more housing tradeoffs than in the past. And maximizing the size of home became less important.”

 

As the majority of buyers will want smaller homes, and since trade-up buyers are disenchanted with the McMansion, explains Chung, “Those McMansions will have a far tougher time holding their value than the rest of the market over the next 10 years.”

 

Today prospective home buyers want to feel socially connected and practice green living. “Depending on the region of the country, our research is finding stuff like an ‘outdoor room,’  [such as] a more usable patio or porch, a more spacious feel in a smaller footprint, [like] more natural light, higher ceilings, more storage space, more communal public space, more customizability. Despite the end of the ever-expanding home, Americans are still looking for more,” Chung tells demo dirt.

 

That "smaller footprint" is a feature that Adrienne van Dooren, National Marketing Director for MyGreenCottage (www.mygreencottage.com), a national green home builders company, cites as a key issue for new homeowners. “The green movement and rising energy costs have encouraged smaller homes. Those McMansions are expensive to heat!” van Dooren says.  

 

“Many Americans are tired of over-consumption. Many have grown weary of super-sized meals, super-sized yards and super-sized homes. Additional square footage comes with additional cleaning, maintenance and stress,” van Dooren, author of The House that Faux Built: Transform Your Home with Paint, Plasters and Creativity maintains (www.fauxhouse.com).

 

Besides being expensive to heat, and creating large carbon footprints, the cookie cutter quality of the McMansion makes it even less attractive to home buyers. “There’s a certain irony in the McMansion, an icon of suburban sprawl. They’re trying to look different, but they try so hard to look different that they all look the same,” says architectural design expert Marianne Cusato, author of Get Your House Right and The Value of Design.  

 

For instance, Cusato explains, a McMansion owner, in attempt to set his home apart from that of a neighbor, may add another gable to his house. Adding a non-functional, gratuitous gable only serves to make his house identical to one that sits just down the block; that is one of the key reasons for the failure of the McMansion, she says.

 

Being part of community will be big trend in real estate, says Cusato, who was named the number four most influential person in the home building industry by Builder magazine. “No one should have to get on the freeway to buy a cup of coffee,” she says. “People want to feel private in their own space but still be connected to the community.”

 

That means the typical McMansion, built far from town, yet set uncomfortably close to a clone, offering a clear view into the neighbor’s bedroom or bathroom, is not a desirable dwelling. The economy and the environment will inevitably lead to demand for walkable communities, due to the soaring price of gas and a growing feeling of isolation from one’s neighbors. Moreover, the two largest demographics, Baby Boomers and Generation Y, Cusato predicts, will be the ones most in demand of anti-McMansion living.

 

Despite the failure, Cusato is hopeful. “The McMansion is a result of how we built our community. We tried, and we failed, but while change is hard, it’s not too late.”   

 

Marianne Cusato’s Lowe's Katrina cottages are now available nationwide at Lowe's stores and online at www.lowes.com/katrinacottage.